THE GOOD RUSSIAN: A BRAND-NEW ONE-MAN SHOW BY ANDREW BYRON

From the producers of Anastasia (5 Stars from Evening Standard) and An Evening with the Romanovs comes this story about a type of Russian that we all-too-rarely see on our screens – a good one. ‘

‘Bad Russians’ are a staple on our screens, and no one knows this better than Andrew Byron – he has made a career out of playing them. But surely not all Russians are bad? This story, told by Andrew seeks to tip the scales in the other direction.

“When I was at University, I went to the land of our Cold War enemies to meet my Russian pen-pal. He was honest, hard-working and extremely well-read, and his dream was to go to England. He had almost no money but his generosity was overwhelming. My story is inspired by him and the many other wonderful Russian characters I have met.”

The Good Russian is about Innokenty Makarov – a Siberian man, about to hit 40, whose life, until now, has been little more than domestic drudgery and escaping into books. When his parents die in a freak accident, Innokenty is suddenly free to pursue his dream of becoming an actor in England. He winds up, however, in rural Devon where he discovers that modern English life is nothing like the land of his favourite Victorian novels. Will he be able to shake off prejudices about Russians and land a meaningful role in the local production of Hamlet?

Andrew Byron is a British actor who has been obsessed with all things Russian (and Soviet) since he started learning the language at school. Discovering that a skill in imitation meant he could sound like a real Russian, he started to get acting roles as a ‘native speaker’ on TV and in films. This means that more often than not, he has found himself playing the Russian baddie, who usually dies, or the Russian who dies at the hands of the baddies.